Chapter 209: Hapsan Sect-1
Chapter 209: Hapsan Sect-1
Guangxi Province, Hapsan.
The martial artists who came to the main gate of the Hapsan Sect, which had become the strongest power in Hapsan and indeed in all of Guangxi Province, were never-ending.
And unfortunately, most of those martial artists did not come with good business.
Today too, many martial artists were pleading with the gate guards, their faces full of desperation.
"Please let us meet the sect leader! The families of our Pyeongdo Mun were all brutally slaughtered in a single morning! There are people who saw Hapsan Sect warriors nearby that day! Please, clear our Pyeongdo Mun's injustice!"
"My daughter was violated and murdered! And there was testimony that Hapsan Quick Sword Gye Ju-seok was drinking nearby that day and then vanished! Please, let me meet that bastard!"
"Clear my injustice!"
"Let me meet the Hapsan Sect leader!"
Countless martial artists were clamoring before the main gate.
But the gate guards of the Hapsan Sect simply pushed them back with cold expressions.
"Your grievances have been properly conveyed to the sect leader! Now, return to your respective homes and await contact!"
The gate guards tried to send them back with such words.
But the gathered crowd could not simply turn back after hearing nothing but that.
"Didn't you say the same thing when I came a few days ago?! Just how long must we wait?!"
"At least tell us how long we must wait! So that we too can go back and wait!"
The martial artists sought to get a proper answer somehow.
But the gate guards' attitude was, as always, stubborn.
"The sect leader is busy with affairs, but he is certainly not the kind of person to ignore fellow martial artists' grievances! Go and wait, and contact will certainly be made!"
That was the moment they were clamoring.
Not far from the main gate, there were people hiding in the trees of a forest, watching them.
One old man and a young girl who appeared to be in her mid-teens.
The girl abruptly asked the old man.
"Grandfather, do they really think that whining like that will make the Hapsan Sect give them an answer?"
The old man then gulped down liquor from his gourd and answered.
"They must think there is no other way. Since they lack the martial strength or courage to oppose the Hapsan Sect. Besides, they probably believe that the orthodox Hapsan Sect wouldn't do them harm."
At those words, the girl frowned and said.
"It's so foolish. Pleading with those who might be the criminals to clear their injustice. If they just looked around, they'd notice that several of the people who were protesting with them yesterday are no longer here."
The old man then gulped down more liquor from his gourd and spoke as if lamenting.
"Wouldn't they think that they decided to go back and wait, as you said? They wouldn't have imagined that the orthodox Hapsan Sect would handle people like that. No matter how sensible a person is, once they are trapped in fixed ideas, they become that foolish. I-rang, you be careful too."
At those words, the granddaughter called I-rang shook her head and said.
"Huu, it's truly pitiful and pathetic. But...."
She suddenly frowned and asked.
"It seems clear that those Hapsan Sect bastards are bad guys wearing the mask of the orthodox faction. But are they really puppets of the Hengshan Sect? We've been observing undercover for a week now, and we haven't found any connection to the Hengshan Sect, have we?"
The old man then answered as if soothing the girl.
"It's intelligence dug out from the inside, so how could it be wrong? Do you think just a week will do? We must observe for at least a month. If they were the kind of people whose tails could be discovered that easily, why would we have struggled so much?"
"But it's so tedious and hard. It feels like a waste of time."
"Huh, really. Didn't I tell you not to come along?"
"Still though."
The girl was complaining to the old man, and he was soothing her, when it happened.
The commotion at the Hapsan Sect's main gate was growing louder.
"I've already waited for a month! How much longer must I wait?! I can't take it anymore! Let me meet the sect leader right now!"
"Right! I'm tired of being told to wait! Quickly, let us see the sect leader!"
It happened in an instant.
The twenty or so martial artists who had been pleading with the gate guards could no longer hold back and attempted to push past the gate guards and enter.
"Uwaaaaah!"
"Hapsan Sect leader, come out!"
"Come out! Hapsan Sect leader Eo Jeong-gi! Hurry and come out!"
At that sudden situation, the gate guards flusteredly tried to push them back with their spears.
"What is this foolishness?!"
"Stand back! If you don't stand back, we will stab you!"
It was when the commotion at the main gate had reached its peak, as they pushed and shoved each other.
Suddenly, the main gate opened and a man revealed himself.
- What is this commotion?!
It was a booming voice laden with powerful internal energy.
Unable to withstand the voice that violently shook their eardrums, the people had no choice but to step back while covering their ears.
Then the man with a cold impression shouted again.
- How dare you cause a disturbance at the main gate of the Hapsan Sect! Do you all want to die?!
At his powerful force, the girl who had been watching while hidden urgently asked her grandfather.
"He seems like a master. Who is he?"
The old man then frowned and answered.
"Umm, it's Hapsan Quick Sword Gye Ju-seok, a peak-level expert of the Hapsan Sect. Of all people, he had to come out; it looks like things will get serious."
"What? Why him?"
That was when it happened.
One of the martial artists who had been covering his ears recognized Gye Ju-seok, and his eyes widened as he shouted.
"Gye Ju-seok, you bastard! You've finally come out!"
At those words, Gye Ju-seok glared at the man and asked.
"Gye Ju-seok? Who are you to dare use my name so carelessly?"
Then the man shouted, his voice boiling with blood.
"I am Ji Seok-jung, head of the Doan Ji Family Estate! Answer me! Wasn't it you who violated and murdered my only daughter two weeks ago?!"
At those words, a strange light appeared in Gye Ju-seok's eyes.
"Doan... Ji Family Estate, you say?"
He then soon sneered and answered.
"I've never even been to that area, so what nonsense are you talking about?"
But at those words, Ji Family Estate head Ji Seok-jung shouted even more furiously.
"Don't lie! There are countless people who say they saw you drinking at the tavern in Doan that day! And the time you disappeared, right around that exact time, my daughter was violated and murdered! If you have nothing to hide, why are you lying?!"
Gye Ju-seok then frowned and muttered.
"What a bother."
He then swept his sharp gaze over the people in the area.
There were roughly twenty people present.
After confirming their numbers, Gye Ju-seok abruptly smiled, a smile tinged with killing intent, and asked.
"Fine then, if I am the one who did it, what are you going to do about it?"
At that question, Ji Family Estate head Ji Seok-jung shouted in outrage.
"Wh-what?! Are you confessing your crime right now?!"
Gye Ju-seok then grinned and drew his sword.
Sreureung!
"So, I'm asking what you're going to do about it, if I am the one who did it?"
With his killing-intent smile and drawn sword, anyone could now tell what he was thinking.
At the ominous atmosphere, the Ji Family Estate head flinched and shouted.
"Th-this bastard! A warrior of the orthodox Hapsan Sect, are you truly going to commit murder to silence us?! All the many people here are witnesses!"
But Gye Ju-seok did not care.
"Uhuhuh, you say there are many people here? Seems like there won't be any soon?"
"Wh-what?!"
In that moment, yellow sword qi surged from Gye Ju-seok's sword.
Hwaak!
Then he immediately leaped toward the man.
"Die!"
The granddaughter watching the scene while hiding looked at her grandfather with a pitiful expression and cried out softly.
"Grandfather!"
But the old man only shook his head, his face dark.
"Ha-a-ap!"
Shuhaak!
"Uwaak!"
It was when Gye Ju-seok's yellow sword qi flew toward the Ji Family Estate head as if to split his chest, and the Ji Family Estate head, unable to respond, screamed.
In that instant, something suddenly flew toward Gye Ju-seok.
Swaeaeaaek!
It was a throwing weapon at tremendous speed.
"!"
Gye Ju-seok could not dare ignore it and had to block it with his sword again.
Ttaang!
"Khook!"
Having barely blocked the incoming object with the flat of his blade, Gye Ju-seok felt his hand trembling from the strong force.
It was a throwing weapon imbued with tremendous martial power.
And the moment he saw the true identity of the thrown weapon that had bounced off the flat of his blade, Gye Ju-seok was startled.
Because it had been merely a pebble.
'He blocked my sword by throwing a mere pebble?'
A chill ran down his spine. Gye Ju-seok aimed his sword toward where the stone had come from and shouted.
"Who is it?! Who dares to pick a fight with the Great Hapsan Sect?!"
The gazes of all the people in the area simultaneously turned in that direction.
Then they could soon see it.
A handsome young man dressed in pure white robes, holding a pure white sword engraved with a white tiger, walking with a cold expression, one firm step at a time.
The young man raised one corner of his mouth in a sneer and muttered.
"The Great Hapsan Sect? Ridiculous."
Even though it was muttered quietly, it was a voice that clearly pierced the ears of everyone present.
At that sneer, Gye Ju-seok ground his teeth and shouted.
"You dare mock our Hapsan Sect?! You truly have a death wish!"
The hidden girl then urgently asked her grandfather.
"He's a very handsome orabeoni! Who is he, Grandfather?"
But her grandfather also only shook his head, his eyes wide with surprise.
"I don't know either. A face I've never seen before. But that white sword engraved with a white tiger, could it be...?"
That was when it happened.
Feeling that the opponent was unusual, Gye Ju-seok commanded the gate guards.
"What are you doing?! That bastard dared to mock us before the main gate of the Great Hapsan Sect! Kill him!"
At his command, the ten gate guards who were looking at the young man with flustered faces reflexively answered and aimed their spears.
"Yes, yes! Understood!"
But in that moment, the young man smiled slightly and took a step forward as he grasped his sword hilt.
Then, not only the gate guards, but even the peak-level expert Gye Ju-seok could not help but be horrified.
"Huk!"
"Wh-what!"
Because the moment the young man took a step, he suddenly appeared in their midst.
It was a movement as if he had performed the Phantom Shift.
He drew his sword the moment he appeared.
Shuhaak!
It was a sword strike that seemed to horizontally split the world apart in an instant.
The people watching suddenly felt an optical illusion as if the world had slightly misaligned along the gleaming solid line that was drawn.
And the next moment, red solid lines were drawn across the bodies of the gate guards who had been watching with flustered expressions.
It was something that happened without them realizing anything themselves.
And it was only a breath later that the lines finally split and spouted blood.
Puhwaak!
"Khe-eok?!"
"What is...?!"
"Aaak!"
Gye Ju-seok, who had been standing back, now muttered with a pale face.
"Wh-what, h-how dare, the warriors of the Hapsan Sect...."
The young man then laughed coldly and spoke.
"Don't worry. You're all going to die anyway."
"What...?!"
In that instant, the young man in white rushed toward Gye Ju-seok.
Pang!
It was a charge at terrible speed.
Gye Ju-seok was shocked and hurriedly tried to defend against his sword.
But for him, it was impossible.
Ttaang! Swiik!
The young man's sword had only slashed twice.
Once horizontally, once vertically.
The strikes with almost no time lag seemed to generate a cross-shaped sword light in the void.
And with that single attack, Gye Ju-seok's body was split vertically.
It happened before he could even scream.
Puhwaak!
Blood was gushing out like a fountain from his body, which had split into two sides.
The people watching that sight were so horrified they could not even utter a sound.
No, they couldn't even properly understand what had just happened.
The only person who could accurately perceive what had just occurred was the old man watching from hiding.
The old man muttered with a horrified face.
"H-how could... that be?"
What the young man in white had needed to kill the peak-level expert Gye Ju-seok was just these two strikes.
A strike that slashed horizontally and a strike that slashed vertically — just these two.
Of them, Gye Ju-seok's defending sword had been pushed aside by the horizontal strike, and his body was split by the vertical strike.
The old man could no longer say anything.
Because turning the famous peak-level expert of the Hapsan Sect, Hapsan Quick Sword Gye Ju-seok, into a lone ghost in just two strikes, and slaughtering Hapsan Sect warriors right in front of their main gate — both were sights far too shocking.
But what had shocked the old man the most was not those two things.
The old man muttered with a horrified face.
"C-could it be... th-the Southern Cross Sword?! H-how?!"
At those words, the girl asked with a puzzled expression.
"Southern Cross Sword? What is that?"
"That swordsmanship is that of the Hainan In Clan...!"
In that instant, the old man could not help but be shocked once again.
Because the young man in white had turned his head and was looking precisely at the place where he was hiding.
The gazes of the young man in white and the old man met in midair.
The old man could not help but swallow unconsciously.
Gulp!